Adjustable pivot for door track



y 1958 H. L. MAJESKE 2,842,795

, ADJUSTABLE PIVOT FOR DOOR TRACK Filed Dec. 28, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. HENRY L. MAJESKE ATTORNEY July 15, 1958 H. L. MAJESKE ADJUSTABLE PIVOT FOR DOOR TRACK Filed Dec. 28, 1956' 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. HENRY L. MAJESKE ll ATTORNEY United States Patent() can Screen Products Company, Miami, Fla., a corporation of Florida Application December 28, 1956, Serial No. 631,262

1 Claim. (CI. I'd- 130) This invention relates to an improved mounting for doors which both fold and slide.

Doors of this type comprisehingedly connected panels having hangers provided with guides which slide in upper and lower tracks, while the end panels are mounted on pivots that turn in bearings fixed in the track.

Heretofore, it has been customary to fabricate track of a particular length to fit doorways of given width thereby requiring the pivot hearings to be swedged or otherwise fixed in the track at the time the latter is made up. This practice requires the manufacture of many different track lengths to fit various door widths and leads to storage and inventory problems in the maintenance of adequate stock, or, alternatively, as above indicated, resorting to the job of specialization, which is always costly, namely to make up track for each particular job.

Accordingly, the present invention has primarily in view the provision of a bearing which is readily adjustable on the job. This means that it is only necessary to cut or shear a standard track section to a given length and insert the bearing at the shop or on the job, in either case locking the bearing in place by a pair of pliers or a simple tool on the order of an open end wrench. If the bearings are applied to the track at the shop, then they may be loosened on the job and slid to the correct pivot location and permanently locked in place. Therefore, the present invention avoids stock-piling and simplifies warehouse problems, because, only long lengths of extruded base stock need be stored and then cut, when needed, to the length required by the particular door specifications, and the adjustable pivots assembled thereto.

Another object is to provide a pivot which permits full adjnstability of pivot location anywhere along the track. This feature permits on-the-job adjustment of pivot location so that best door closure results may be obtained, as well as optimum pivot action. Also, the doors may be easily plumbed when an out of square condition of the door frame exists. In other words, by holding a fixed pivot location at the top and by moving the pivot location as desired at the bottom, the outer edge of the door can be made to move either up or down in order to achieve the most satisfactory closure between the two doors where they meet at their innermost edges in the closed position.

With the above and other objects in view, the invention consists in the novel construction hereinafter more fully illustrated and described and set forth in the claim.

A preferred and practical embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a view illustrating a sliding and folding door construction embodying the present improvements.

Fig. 2 is a contracted vertical sectional view taken on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken on the line 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view taken on the line 2,8423% Patented July 15, 1%58 ICC 4-4 of Fig. 1 illustrating the upper track in plan and a pair of the adjustable pivot assemblies in place.

, Fig. 5 is an exploded view of a door hanger, the adjustable pivot assembly, and a portion of the track.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged detail front elevation of the constrne'tion shown in Fig. 3.

Similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several figures of the drawings.

Referring first to Fig. 1, it will be seen that the present invention is used in a combination folding and sliding door arrangement wherein one of such doors may con- 'sist, for example, of the panels A and B connected by hinges H and the other door' may consist of the panels C anid D connected by hinges H, all of said panels being assembled within a door frame designated generally as E.

The lintel and the base portions of the doorway within the frame E are each provided with tracks T of, for example, the cross sectional shape shown in Fig. 2, and also'shownin' greater detail in Fig. 5.

The tracks T are of generally channel shaped formation to provide a guiding groove and include the inturned flanges 11 which define a slot S which receives the tubular bearing portions of guide hangers G located near the free edges of the hangers adjacent panels B and C and which freely slide in the slot S when the doors are angled on the hinges H and H. So far as the present invention is concerned its scope would include a groove in the floor and the flanges 11 defining a slot.

Also, it will be seen that the end panels A and D are provided with pivot hangers P which pivotally anchor substantially the outer marginal portions of said panels within the pivot bearings constituting the present invention and shown in the exploded view in Fig. 5.

The guide hangers G and the pivot hangers P are gen erally of the same construction and characteristics, and therefore a description of one will suflice for the other.

Referring to Fig. 5, for example, it will be seen that the pivot hanger P is of angular formation with its shank portion slotted to receive screws or like fastenings for fitting the hanger to a door panel. The short offset arm P of the hanger is provided with a guide 2 preferably of lubricious non-metallic material which will slide freely between the flanges 1-1 defining the slot S. This feature is common to both the pivot hangers and the guide hangers.

The adjustable pivot assembly includes what may be conveniently called a base nut 3 having an external profile which permits it to slide non-rotatably in the channel between the bottom thereof and the inner faces of the inturned flanges 11. The nut 3 is provided with internal threads 4 to receive the externally threaded shank portion 5 of a tubular sleeve 6. One end of the sleeve is provided with a flange 7 of appropriate contour or profile to receive a wrench or equivalent tool.

When the nut 3 and sleeve 6 are assembled by the interengagement of the threads 4 and 5, a lock Washer 8 is interposed therebetween, as will be apparent from all of the drawings.

As the sleeve 6 and nut 3 are screwed together they will clamp or grip opposite sides of the flanges 1-1 and thus hold the assembly in any given or selected position on the track. When flange 7 on the sleeve 6 is loosened relative to the nut, the latter may be slid anywhere along the channel before it is set in the final selected position by turning the flange 7 to clamp the lock washer 8 against the outside faces of the inturned flanges 1-1 of the track.

From the foregoing it will now be seen that track lengths T having a slot S defined by flanges 1-1 may be carried in stock and sheared to meet the specifications of any width doorway. The pivot assemblies 3-8,

inclusive, are fitted to the track by placing the nut 3 in the open end of the channel so that the nut will slide in the channel and its threaded portion 4 will be in position to receive the threaded portion 5 of the sleeve 6.

In any event, the sleeve nut 67 is exposed for engagcment with an open end wrench, or its equivalent, so that by turning the same in one direction it will be readily locked in place, and, upon loosening the same the same may be readily shifted to any desirable location, thereby fulfilling the objects heretofore stated.

I claim:

A vertical axis pivot anchor for a door having a horizontal edge thereof disposed adjacent a horizontal track including a pair of horizontally aligned flanges having spaced free edges and a longitudinal slot disposed outwardly of said flanges relative to said edge of the door; comprising an internally threaded nut slidably and nonrotatably supported in said slot and bearing on said flanges, a hanger secured to said door and comprising a horizontal arm disposed between said door edge and said flanges, a cylindrical vertical axis pivot stud supported on said arm, a tubular externally threaded sleeve 4 receiving said pivot stud and having one end thereof adjustably supported within said nut, said sleeve having a polygonally shaped tool engageable head on its opposite end disposed between said arm and said flanges, and a lock washer encircling said sleeve and disposed between said head and said flanges, whereby the pivot anchor is slidably adjustable longitudinally of the track upon slight retraction of said sleeve from said nut and is secured to the track in adjusted position against movement longitudinally thereof upon threading said sleeve into said nut.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 903,328 Sheppard Nov. 10, 1908 1,245,127 Schultz Oct. 30, 1917 1,361,913 Sebastian Dec. 14, 1920 1,942,712 Kirsch Jan. 9, 1934 1,967,039 Mohr July 17, 1934 20 2,674,767 Fairhurst Apr. 13, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 686,613 Great Britain Jan. 28, 1953 

